My Windows 10 trial....

[dkightley]

I thought I'd post my trials & tribulations with Win 10...

I didn't want to end up with my main PC having issues with Win10, particularly that I'm doing a 3D printing demo in less than 2 weeks and my PC & Makerbot2 are running fine on Win7. So I decided to upgrade my laptop (Sony Vaio) to Win10 (from Win7) and install S3D.

The upgrade to Win10 was astonishingly easy & I installes S3D. On starting S3D, it ran okay and I was able to configure my printer, but hung immediately I clicked "Prepare to Print"...as did my whole laptop. On re-powering up & restarting, i was able to get to the print preview, the printer connected....but nothing happened when I instructed a print to USB (I can't print to SD as my printer's card reader is bust!). Jogging the print head also didn't work - no communication messages on the log.

I decided to back out of WIn10 back to Win7...which is dead easy!! Installing S3D surprisingly gave exactly the same connect but non-print and jog control failure symptoms. Strange, I thought. I also had a warning on start that S3D required OpenGL v2 min & that I had OpenGL v1, I checked for updates...and I was running the absolutely latest drivers for my laptop's vidio. I upgraded the Makerbot2 drivers to those supplied with ReplicatorG....and the printer burst into life and printed a 10 minute job...even through a power-saving period!!

I re-installed Win10 to see if it would pick up the working printer driver...but I had exactly the same issues..so I've reverted back to Win7.

I'm now apprehensive about trying Win10 on my PC for the time being....until after I've done my printing display & demo. I'll keep my eye on other's reports re their experiences before trying Win10 again...

[falstaffpac]

I'll add my own experience as it might be potentially helpful. I tried upgrading my laptop from Win7 which did not go very well (not related to S3D, but more a result of ghosts in the machine). I ended up starting from scratch (wiped HD, installed Win7, upgraded to Win10) and everything worked great. The "latest" drivers for my video card it turns out did not support OpenGL v2. I ended up having to install older video drivers which did support OpenGL v2. Beyond that, S3D has been stable for me on Win10.

[Rebekah_harper]

I've had exactly the same issue.
I still have the freeze when previewing large parts. I don't do over USB any more as it fails everytime. I don't think they can solve this one easily. I thought that it would be similar type of comms as used with normal printers but think there is something extra wrong.

I usually get CRC check errors. which I think is the printer responding with 'yes got that' or 'no I haven't please send again'.

in addition It freezes mid print. funny thing is when I tell it to stop the whole process the printer then homes, and then starts to print from the last point. but from it's home position.

the jog function seems to vary. sometimes it no issues but then things like the X-axis control send the head in the Y-axis direction.

so I have given up with USB printing and am now just using SD cards.

I would like them to focus on USB printing for a bit to fix it. I believe that the printer Firmware has some blame too as I had the same problem with Win 7.

[btaylor147]

Just a though but do you have Makerware loaded? If so, you need to turn off the makerbot conveyor service. If you don't turn this off you cannot communicate to the your makerbot via simplify.

Brandon

[bpages]

I figured that I would add to this discussion. I recently updated to Windows 10 from windows 7. I began having printing issues with a MakerBot Replicator 2 and latest version of Simplify 3D. I concur with what dkightley is seeing. My prints start and look like they are going fine. Then, they pause for 10-30 seconds which sometimes causes the nozzle to stick to the print. Regardless, the prints are ruined. I have tried "resetting" windows 10 several times. Each time I am careful to stop the 3D Print service and the Makerware Conveyor service and disable them in the Services GUI. Without stopping these services, I am unable to even connect to the Makerbot.
I have had to resort to using the SD card method which feels like going back in time... Additionally, even when I load the model on the SD card and start the print from the S3D machine control panel, I usually get a failed print with an error on the Makerbot LCD that says something like "We noticed there was an error on your SD card". However, if I start the same model from the Makerbot LCD, all is well.
I purchased a wireless toshiba SD card and will go the route of wirelessly sending models to the card and then printing from the Makerbot. However, this seems like a huge step back from where I was with Windows 7. I do not want to go back to Windows 7 because the rest of Windows 10 has been very positive. I am a software engineer and realize that bugs take time to squash. Hopefully, someone is working this issue...

[dkightley]

I purchased a wireless toshiba SD card and will go the route of wirelessly sending models to the card and then printing from the Makerbot.

Now that's a workable compromise! I'll get one of these cards to prevent all the plugging in and unplugging of SD cards!

EDIT:

Just researched what SD cards can be read by the Makerbot.......and from what I've read so far, it seems that the firmware will only support cards up to 2GB that are formatted as FAT16. Which may change what I do.......I'll need to wait for my printer to finish it's current job before investigating further.

2ND EDIT:
https://www.makerbot.com/support/new/05 ... he_SD_Card
So 2GB it is!

[bbinnard]

Several people in other forums have reported WIn10 has trouble with devices connected vial serial port (or USB/Serial.) So far I have not seen any fix for this. The workaround is to print via SD card or some other way (like wireless) for connecting printer to computer.

[erniehatt]

I have Win 10 home installed, and to be honest I have had no problems printing. On two occasions I had a print stop, but found this was caused by the filament getting jammed on the reel.